Waite & Clothier Into Men's Final
April 2, 2005, Rob Dinerman in New York
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Nightcap Edition    [complete draws & results]

April 2 10:00PM - Gary Waite and Morris Clothier came within a single match of duplicating their title-winning heroics three years ago with a solid 3-1 victory over Eric Vlcek and Alex Pavulans in the semifinal round of the 2005 C B Richard Ellis U. S. Doubles championships this afternoon. Waite and Clothier built up a two games to love lead by winning an important second-game tiebreaker, then pulled away in the fourth to qualify for tomorrow's final late in the afternoon.

They will be opposing Preston Quick and Steve Scharff, who trailed Scott Butcher and Josh McDonald two games to love and later saw an 8-2 fifth-game advantage cancelled out yet still managed to save double-match-point in the best-of-five tiebreaker that decided the fifth game. Quick had emerged successfully from a highly similar situation in last year's final in Chicago, where he and Vlcek lost a large lead over Clothier and Damien Mudge and were likewise caught at 13-all before persevering through the ensuing tiebreaker.

In fact, two of the four Open semifinals were resolved by a fifth-game overtime session; in the top-half women's semi, top seeds Jessica Dimauro and Karen Jerome dropped a best-of-nine tiebreaker five points to one to Alicia McConnell and Pochi Holdefer, a marked contrast to the other women's Open semi, which went to the Belknap sisters, Berkeley and Mary, in three games over Brooke Cooper and Kristin Fullam.

McConnell will thus seek her 10th career U. S. National Doubles title (which she won the previous nine years with Demer Holleran) and Clothier his ninth tomorrow afternoon. The latter won from 1993-95 with Jon Foster and from
1998-2001 with Vlcek before he and Waite prevailed in 2002. Clothier, who had been 8-0 in National Doubles finals before losing to Vlcek and Quick in '03 with Butcher and last year, as noted, with Mudge, will therefore be playing in his 11th final and seventh in a row.

Results, US National Doubles: [Draw/results]

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